Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

Islands in the Indian Ocean

Port Louis, Mauritius We paid a visit to Port Louis, Mauritius and spent 8 hours or so exploring this small (pop 1.3 million) island country on a guided tour. Unfortunately though, we did not get a chance to see much of Reunion when we docked there. That’s because the cyclone that passed over the island […]

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Maputo, Mozambique

Bob Dylan immortalized the place in his song “Mozambique” in 1976.     Well, times change. We spent a short time in the Mozambique city of Maputo, but there is not much to see. Mozambique does have beautiful beaches, but they are about 3 hours away from Maputo.  A colony of Portugal, Mozambique gained its […]

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Another Safari Day

Out in the Bush   When you head out to the bush country you just don’t know what you are going to find. For the second (of three) Safari days out in the bush, the plan was to find some elephants in the morning, and maybe more lions in the afternoon. That meant getting a […]

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On Safari–Part 1

Here we are at Thanda Game Reserve to go on a Safari. Thanda is our “base camp” in the same way the Ritz-Carlton is a base camp. The place is just spectacular. (See the photo below of our villa). After we arrived we got settled in and went for our first game drive, lasting from […]

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Mossel Bay & Port Elizabeth

We have left Mossel Bay and Port Elizabeth and are now sailing in the Indian Ocean, headed for Durban. From Durban we will head inland to the Thanda Game Reserve in the heart of the Zulu homelands where we will go on Safari, tracking (and hopefully photographing) the “Big 5”–Elephants, Lions, Cape buffalo, Black rhinos and […]

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Cape Town, South Africa

We spent a few days tooling around Cape Town, South Africa after beating the East coast storm by a day.  17 hours in the air is a lot of flight time, but it was well worth it. Cape Town is hopping in our neighborhood but once you get outside the upmarket areas, it’s a bit […]

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Two Days in Lyon, France

We spent a quick—too quick—couple of days in Lyon, France’s second largest city. According to Journal des Arts it is the second city for culture in France, coming in just behind Paris. The capital of the Lyon Metropolitan region, the city is a festival of museums, restaurants, cafes and historic architecture. We stayed in Vieux […]

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Back from the City of Light

Paris, France—November 3 through November 8, 2017   We got the chance to take a quick trip over to Paris including a side trip to Lyon to celebrate the 21st birthday of our niece who is studying in Lyon. Paris is as beautiful and cosmopolitan as ever, with its classic architecture, museums, cafes and restaurants. […]

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Autumn Colors in Shark River Park

The colors of autumn are sprouting everywhere, and Shark River Park is a great place to observe the leaves turning colors as the Fall arrives in earnest. In the space below I have included some photos from a recent trip over there. Please click on the photos to see larger full resolution versions. And before […]

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